America, other Western nations and most others notoriously honor their worst while persecuting and punishing some of their best.

A Wednesday article discussed Shimon Peres’ passing, calling him an enforcer of Israeli apartheid brutishness, a member of the generation of thugs responsible for the Nakba catastrophe – stealing most of historic Palestine, the rest in June 1967, imposing occupation harshness on millions of Palestinians, victims of Israeli ruthlessness.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri described him as “the last remaining Israeli official who founded the occupation, and his death is the end of a phase in (its) history and the beginning of a new phase of weakness.”

Hamas official Amir Abo Al Amren called him “a murderer and not a man of peace. He deceived the entire world but (not) the Palestinian people.”

Late in life, ignoring his longstanding criminal legacy, he disgracefully called Palestinians “self-victimizing. They victimize themselves,” he said. “They are a victim of their own mistakes unnecessarily.”

America and Israel notoriously blame victims for their imperial crimes, their attempt to justify the unjustifiable.

Alive or deceased, Peres deserves universal condemnation, a lifelong perpetrator of high crimes of war, against humanity and slow-motion genocide, sanitized to appear otherwise.

Longtime Israeli collaborator against his own people, illegitimate Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, anointed, not elected, said he’ll attend Peres’ Friday funeral, disgracing himself more than already.

He called Peres a partner in the “peace of the brave,” a shameless perversion of truth like all other eulogies, praising a man of war and apartheid viciousness, not peace and justice.

Ahead of Friday’s funeral, Netanyahu issued a statement, saying Peres “set his gaze on the future. He did so much to protect our people.”

“He worked to his last days for peace and a better future for all – at the expense of long-suffering Palestinians, paying the price for his actions, Netanyahu neglected to explain.

Scores of world leaders and other dignitaries arrived – including Obama (together with Bill Clinton, John Kerry and numerous other current and former US officials), French President Francois Hollande, German President Joachim Gauck, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, a British delegation including former prime ministers David Cameron and Tony Blair along with Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Obama issued a deplorable statement, saying “(a) light has gone out, but the hope he gave us will burn forever.”

He disgracefully called Peres a “soldier for Israel, for the Jewish people, for justice, for peace, and for the belief that we can be true to our best selves…”

A joint Bill and Hillary Clinton statement described him as “a lucid, eloquent dreamer until the very end. Thank goodness. Let those of us who loved him and love this nation keep his dream alive.”

Heavy security is present in Israel today for Peres’ funeral, major roads closed, other measures in place, disrupting things for many Israelis.

He was “the leading ambassador” of the 1993 sham Oslo accords – “creat(ing) a greater apartheid Israel with small Palestinian bantustans scattered within it.”

He disgracefully won a Nobel Peace Prize for “advanc(ing) the ruination of Palestine and its people” – their suffering ignored for generations.

Peres “symbolized the beautification of Zionism, but the facts on the ground lay bare his role in perpetrating so much suffering and conflict,” Pappe explained.

Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy wrote “(i)f Israel is on the verge of a moral abyss, then Peres had a part in that. If it’s a country en route to apartheid, he was a founding partner. (He) never saw Palestinians as equal to Jews.”

Peres was a world class thug, a mass murderer, a leading figure throughout Israel’s sordid history of high crimes gone unpunished.

Stephen Lendman was born in 1934 in Boston, MA. In 1956, he received a BA from Harvard University. Two years of US Army service followed, then an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1960. After working seven years as a marketing research analyst, he joined the Lendman Group family business in 1967. He remained there until retiring at year end 1999. Writing on major world and national issues began in summer 2005. In early 2007, radio hosting followed. Lendman now hosts the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network three times weekly. Distinguished guests are featured. Listen live or archived. Major world and national issues are discussed. Lendman is a 2008 Project Censored winner and 2011 Mexican Journalists Club international journalism award recipient.

About Stephen

Stephen Lendman was born in 1934 in Boston, MA. In 1956, he received a BA from Harvard University. Two years of US Army service followed, then an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1960. After working seven years as a marketing research analyst, he joined the Lendman Group family business in 1967.